On May 6, 2020, three Katyusha-type rockets struck a military base used by the US troops and diplomats near Baghdad International Airport.

It came hours before Iraq’s parliament is set to vote on a long-awaited new government of the prime minister-designate Mustafa Al-KADHIMI’s new cabinet, five months after the current cabinet resigned.

In a statement, Iraq’s security forces said that the rockets hit near the airport around dawn and that military units found the launching pad in the al-BARKIYA area, near Baghdad.

An Iraqi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one of the rockets struck close to Iraqi forces at the military airport, another near Camp Cropper, once a US detention facility, and the last near to where US forces are stationed at the base. “The target was the headquarters of the Counter-Terrorism Service, where American troops are based” a security source told AFP.

Baghdad’s airport has been closed since March 2020 as part of a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

It has coincided with a relative lull in tensions between the US and Iran after a particularly tense few months.

The US blames a series of rocket attacks near or on bases hosting its troops this year on Iran-aligned groups, although those groups have not claimed them.

Tensions between the US and Iran have ramped up over the last year, culminating in the US killing of Qassem SOLEIMANI Iranian military commander and Kataib Hezbollah founder Abu Mahdi al-MUHANDIS.

This article was edited using the data from the Aljazeera.com, English.alaraby.co.uk and, and Thenational.ae.

Source of the photo: english.alaraby.co.uk.